PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: As he rose through the years, he was especially helpful to the younger students. There were a few with whom he spent time often. They began to do very well, and be very focused on their classes... I almost thought of them as Riddle's children within the school. In hindsight, maybe he was already recruiting, but not all of them followed his ideals after he became Lord Voldemort. Lucius Malfoy was one; so was Severus Snape...

Tom and a young Snape sit in a room with bookshelves, similar to the one from the end of page 18. Tom, grinning, shows Snape how to levitate a rock. Snape is also levitating a rock, but has more trouble.

PRESENT GRANGER: Hmm. Lucius Malfoy? When I was interrogating Harry, he said that Draco–

PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: Yes?

PRESENT GRANGER: My apologies; I suspect that this is something you would prefer not to know.

PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: Ah, then I suppose you will not tell me.

PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: When Riddle started slipping away from us in his sixth year, we were concerned for him. He stopped showing emotion, and he shunned everyone outside his inner circle. Only in hindsight have I come to the realization that he as not putting on a mask – he was removing one.

Tom stands with a flat expression, staring blankly into space. Ze is carrying a happy mask and an upset mask, like the Comedy/Tragedy masks, which are the same color as zir skin. In the place of the Time-Twister is the black sphere from page 7; it has three soul fragments in it, and the other four fragments are scattered around the edges of the page.

PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: I believe that was the year he learned the power to split his soul, and once he was unkillable, he no longer needed our approval to take what he wanted. He no longer had to hide his true self.

Dumbledore is more perceptive in the bottom half of this page than I had planned for zem to be. If I had more time to spend on this story, I would structure it so that you see what Dumbledore is describing, Dumbledore makes different assumptions, and then – because of what you already heard from Harry – you realize that Dumbledore's assumptions are incorrect.

The trouble is, if I did it the way I want to, it would be about three times as long. I'd love to make every chapter three times as long, but I have many other projects I want to do, so I'd like to finish Voldemort's Children more quickly than that.